EU fights Russian fake news machine from the shadows

NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told Playbook that he does not believed in “fighting propaganda with propaganda.” The EU also stays out of the propaganda game (mostly) but has created a team “East StratCom” in its External Action Service to catalogue and expose disinformation it says comes from the Russian state. So far it claims to have found nearly 2,500 examples of Russian disinformation.

You can imagine Playbook’s surprise when journalists were invited to a briefing this week on said disinformation, only to be told they couldn’t quote the diplomats giving the briefing. Reporters were, in other words, asked to expose disinformation from shadowy sources via non-quotes from another faceless source.

Here’s some context we can give you: the “EU source” is part of a team of about a dozen people, with no discretionary budget. They have uncovered false stories such as one about the Ukrainian army crucifying a three-year-old boy in a former rebel stronghold. Angela Merkel is a new target of Russian disinformation says the “EU source” and is regularly implicated as a cause of terrorist attacks.

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jodocus2

The EU could do a much better job of presenting information … and relevant statistics. Including scienfic type source references.

As I see it, that’s the best wat to deal with both the populist peanut gallery, under-informed activists, and professional Russian disinformation agitators.

Even (or perhaps especially) when the truth is uncomplimentory to the powers-that-be. in that case you get the additional benefit of being put in a position to improve your operation.

So: let the truth serve !

Posted on 1/27/17 | 12:06 PM CET

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FB page – good step but is it enough? Russians have hundreds of people employed as professional trolls, working actively on posting pro-kremlin comments all around Europe (there are even interviews with ex-trolls). I dont understand how Russia Today, dictatorship-funded propaganda is even legal in the EU? it does not serve free media – and seemingly the criminal law for misinformation should step in!